House Democrats are hammering on Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) decision to open an impeachment inquiry against President Biden without a vote. Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL) clapped back in a post on X (formerly Twitter), pointing out that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) did not call for a vote to launch an inquiry into President Trump either.
"Pelosi established a precedent for impeachment when we rammed through two bogus impeachments based purely on politics & no evidence. The House GOP has more evidence on Biden than any other impeached president & the Dems want to cry foul on a procedural vote. Cry me a river," tweeted Rep. Donalds.
Pelosi established a precedent for impeachment when we rammed through two bogus impeachments based purely on politics & no evidence.
The House GOP has more evidence on Biden than any other impeached president & the Dems want to cry foul on a procedural vote. Cry me a river. https://t.co/QgwTNn4rOJ
— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) September 14, 2023
In the clip provided by RNC Research that Rep. Donalds retweeted with his comment, Pelosi said at the time that "there is no requirement that we have a vote [to open an impeachment inquiry], and so we will not be having a vote." Additionally, Pelosi stated she was "very pleased with the thoughtfulness of our Caucus in terms of being supportive of the path that we are on in terms of fairness, in terms of seeking the truth, in terms of upholding the Constitution of the United States."
The Hill provided additional context, noting that Pelosi opened the inquiry on September 24th, 2019, yet the House did not vote until Halloween, just over a month later.
In August, Rep. Donalds criticized Pelosi for mounting "gunshot impeachment votes with no evidence whatsoever and hardly any deliberation." By contrast, Donalds said House Republicans took time to build an "open and shut case" before launching an inquiry to be voted upon later.
"When we took over the majority, the thing we did not want to do was play games with the Constitution. And with impeachment, the way Nancy Pelosi did, what [she] did were these gunshot impeachment votes, with no evidence whatsoever and hardly any deliberation. We do believe that is wrong, and we believe that is not the way the House should conduct itself," said Donalds.
More recently, Donalds said there was "more than enough" evidence necessary for the inquiry to continue and that the House has made "a lot of progress" in gathering even more.
